Friday, February 5, 2016

Artistic Freedom and Our Backwards American Culture

In light of the recent censorship of some of my illustration ads by Facebook, and thinking of such incidents as the exposure of Janet Jackson's nipple, I want to show just how backwards our present American culture is when it comes to nudity and art. Read this statement by the Vienna regional court when charges were brought against the artist Gustave Klimt for exhibiting studies from his painting, Medicine. Remember, this was circa 1907:
"It should hardly need mentioning that no narrow boundaries must be drawn with regard to the objects of an artist's imagination or the execution of an artistic idea. Nor must there be a prohibition on the natural depiction of nudity, which has always been the part of any art. And whenever we are dealing with a serious work of art, purely governed by aesthetic considerations, it would be inappropriate to speak of an offence against people's sense of morality or modesty."
"Medicine" by Gustave Klimt

Sea of Oblivion by Zoltan (me). One of my
illustrations censored as a Facebook ad.

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